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Children whose parents separated or divorced when they were under age 5 had a fivefold increased risk of binge drinking at age 16 compared with children whose parents stayed together, a study including nearly 32,000 people showed. But the researchers also found that high levels of parental warmth before age 5 reduced the odds of excessive drinking by age 16, suggesting that instability and stress -- and not divorce itself -- affects children's drinking habits.

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Researchers reported in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal that the median occupancy rate in 34 U.S. children's hospitals during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was 95%, adding that the hospitals would have been at full capacity with only about 0.2 additional admissions for every 10 beds daily. The findings suggest that modest increases in pediatric cases in a pandemic could lead to substantial emergency department crowding at children's hospitals, researchers said.

Eight percent of children and adolescents whose mothers didn't smoke while pregnant had been prescribed antipsychotics, antidepressants or other psychiatric medications, compared with 11% of those whose mothers smoked fewer than 10 times daily during pregnancy and 14% of those whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day, a Finnish study showed. Researchers noted in the American Journal of Epidemiology that prenatal exposure to smoking was most strongly associated with drugs for addiction and stimulant drugs used to treat attention problems and hyperactivity.

Researchers examined data on 7,845 Dutch women and found that those who were undernourished as children were more likely to have heart disease later in life compared with those who were not. According to data published in the European Heart Journal, women who had been affected by severe famine between the ages of 10 and 17 were the most susceptible to heart disease as adults.

An analysis of 43 studies on young children found a 24% reduction in overall mortality and a 28% decrease in diarrhea-associated deaths for those taking vitamin A supplements, researchers reported in the British Medical Journal.

Analyzing state regulations, practices and policies in child-care facilities, researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that such centers can do more to boost the nutritional value of food they serve, children's exercise time, efforts to promote healthy behavior and the use of health-education materials. "Early prevention is considered to be the most promising strategy for reducing obesity" and related health issues, said researcher Nicole Larson.